2012: Quotes of the day – George W. Bush and Barack Obama according to Popol Vuh

“The Maya prophecy for 2012 is literally verified in a person who appeared, ruled, and ruined so much while seeking to exercise great control over humanity, all in service to his own selfish purposes. The prophesied appearance of Seven Macaw came to pass, and his name was George W. Bush” (Jenkins 2009:320)

According to Jenkins the Popol Vuh describes fairly general/archetypal events and persons that will occur at the end of a World Age. We are near the end of such a World Age according to Jenkins’s interpretation of Maya cosmology and he therefore singles out Bush as the worst of many Seven Macaws (people driven by greed, egocentrism and megalomania). Some of these Seven Macaws are also corporations. Jenkins chooses some historical examples when “legions of tyrants appear at the later, degraded phases of a civilization” (p 326). He singles out the Roman emperors and particularly Caligula “whose corruption in the decadent demise of the Roman empire is legendary” (p 326). I do not want to be picky but Caligula (AD 37-41) was the third of 147 Roman emperors that reigned before the division of the empire in AD 395. He can therefore hardly be seen as responsible for the demise of the empire. Such minor details appear not to bother Jenkins (and I can mention several other corrupted persons during the “height” of civilization). Did the “fall” of the Roman empire end a World Age? Hardly not the one visualized by Jenkins anyway (but if so each “civilization” makes up a World Age). Jenkins idealized worldview is not intended to be rational (it is supposed to be transrational). It therefore takes on a greater transcendent/arborescent perspective and orders everything under some archetypes/master-signifiers found in Aldous Huxley’s work on perennial philosophy. Jenkins is just another person who believes he thinks outside the (rational) box. He continues:

“If the definitive downfall of Bush-style politics was a manifestation of the Maya prophecy of the rise and demise of Seven Macaw, it’s hard to not to see Obama as the fulfillment of the second part of the Maya prophecy-namely, the restoration of the true ruler and the emergence of a unity consciousness represented by One Hunahpu” (Jenkins 2009:326f)

True ruler? Of the world or the USA? This is a typical USA-centered approach like so much else of the 2012 phenomenon. It turns out that Jenkins, despite all discussion of galactic alignment, precession of equinoxes, Atlantis (yes, it shows up in this book, not as a sunken continent but as an astronomical event halfway through the precession cycle when there is an alignment between the Milky Way and the summer solstice), it turns out that he is just another of the 2012 prophets. However, contrary to the majority of them, he can build upon his ideas after 2012 as well.

Jenkins, John Major (2009). The 2012 Story. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, New York.

Responses

Not hard to see for whom Jenkins voted in the last election. It is interesting to see the 2012 “prophets” go down the same path as the fundamentalist Christian ones in seeing prophecies from ancient peoples who lived thousands of miles and thousands of years from the USA see there being specific prophecies about the US. Of course, these modern-day prophets are almost all Americans and I see this as stemming from an incredible nationalistic egocentrism. The fact that 2012ers such as Jenkins are getting in on the act just shows that this is not a trait exclusively coming from those of right-wing persuasion.

I have to say that “transrational” is just a fancy and dissembling way of saying “irrational”. I’m not surprised to see Jenkins using such a term. Like so many New Agers he has to reject the rational since a rational analysis of his ideas easily disproves them. Good call on his Caligula reference as well. So we can conclude that not only does Jenkins not understand the ancient Maya, he doesn’t understand ancient Rome either.

By: Stanley Guenter on June 12, 2011 at 20:21

Stan,
Have you read my book? I think not. If you did, you would find a clear explanation of the concept of the pre-trans fallacy that you are falling prey to here. We can credit a limited a limited philosophical understanding for this kind of confusion between irrational and trans-rational. The prerational-rational-transrational model does not involve a rejection of the rational — I can direct you to page numbers in my book if you care to be better informed about the ideas you are flippantly dismissing. If you’re going to critique my writings, please be informed about them.

Johan — In my book The 2012 Story, my discussion of the archetype of Seven Macaw was taken well beyond American nationalism to the transnational corporate level. You should try quoting the paragraph that follows that first quote you used from page 320. This would give your readers an accurate understanding of where I was going in my treatment of the archetypal symbolism within the Popol Vuh. Of course, I understand that the limited framework of academic treatment does not allow for this kind of depth-perception, which is why discursive academic analysis fails so miserably in languaging what Maya cosmo-conception is about.

Your two comments ended up in the spam filter so I did not see them until now.

I agree that academic discourse is not supposed to treat the data you propose. However, I disagree that what you are saying is that hard to understand from a rational perspective or that it is “deep”. Maya cosmology appears more related to immanence than transcendence if you ask me.

Another quote from his book is this one (p 309): “And here we are at a new juncture [like the Copernican revolution], in which a galactic cosmovision devised by ancient pagans (the Maya) threatens the superiority complex of modern science”. Indeed, I get the impression that he believes his discoveries will create a new paradigm, just like Copernicus and Einstein (they were also people on the fringe of established science, just like Jenkins consider himself to be).

I have less than 100 pages left of the book to read and I still have not seen any references to cave studies (apart from the “celestial cave” supposedly in the Milky Way). How can one ignore the past two decades of research of these cosmological features so abundant in the Maya area?

You are asking rational questions of a “transrational” mind. And that’s not rational. 😉

By: Stanley Guenter on June 12, 2011 at 23:02

If Jenkins would of wrote, that George Bush was guided, or controlled by aliens, Like Joan of Arc, Hitler, Joseph Smith, etc.,that would be much easier to believe, than his story, that Bush was the worst of the seven Macaws from the Popol Vuh.

By: Gilgamesh on June 13, 2011 at 05:55

There is only one Seven Macaw in Popol Vuh. Jenkins argue that, in the myth, he characterizes greed, megalomania, etc. (and that is true). What Jenkins do is to see Popol Vuh as an explanation for transformations at the end of an World Age when ideal conditions is to be restored. Jenkins believes there are many Seven Macaws in our world today (not just former US president but also bullies at school, your boss, etc.).

George W. Bush, on the other hand… I just don’t think he had what it takes to be an avatar of Seven Macaw. The average parrot is much more intelligent than GWB, not to mention articulate. In fact, unlike former president Bush, some breeds of parrot such as African Greys even have the capacity to learn new vocabulary words throughout their entire lifetimes.

As for the Popol Vuh, I think its symbolism is much too rich & complex to be summed up in such simple metaphors. The “good guys” in it often strike me as worse than the “bad guys”, by modern standards at least. It has to be understood as an intricate, multilayered literary work produced at a particular time in history, & relative to the standards of that time.

Here is the story of the beginning when there was not one bird, not one fish, not one mountain. Here is the sky, all alone. Here is the sea, all alone. There is nothing more-no sound, no movement. Only the Creators, only Heart-of-Sky, Huracán alone. And these are his names: Maker and Modeler, the first is Caculhá-Huracán, the second is Chipi-Huracán, the third is Raxá-Caculhá, those three form Hart-of-Sky. But there is no one to speak his names. There is no one to praise his glory. There is no one to nurture his greatness…

How should it be sown, how should it dawn?” . . . And then the Earth arose because of them, it was simply their word that brought it forth. For the forming of the Earth they said “Earth.” It arose suddenly, just like a cloud, like a mist, now forming, unfolding. . . . Such was the formation of the Earth when it was brought forth by the Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth, as they are called. . . The Sky was set apart, and the Earth was set apart in the midst of the waters). (Popol Vuh)

By: becoming corn on June 15, 2011 at 20:36

Maybe this is all true, what you wrote? But what you think will happen on 2012?
Maybe there will be no Earthquake, no Floods, no Asteroids falling from the Sky.
Maybe the Sun, and the Earth will just vanish in one instant.
Thousands of Stars vanish every year from the Sky. They are there one night, but the next night they are not there,and they are missing, What happened to them?
Where they went?
But I dont think this will happen to our Sun, and the Earth, Maya Calender or not.
Maybe not even in a billion years, Maybe never.

By: Gilgamesh on June 15, 2011 at 23:23

I’m No End-timer,I Pray We Travel On The Beauty Path Forever,Even Evolving To Homo-luminous,If Not These Bodies Of Corn Dough,Still Can Serve Our Needs.We Can Place More Consciousness On Being In Balance With Pacamama.The Future Is Our Birthright,The Past Our Heritage,Our Heart-song Will Guide Us Through The Brambals Of This Not Too Certain Present.
Terrra me crepo,Agua me sangra,Vento me aire,Fuego me spiritu!

“.. it’s hard to not to see Obama as the fulfillment of the second part of the Maya prophecy-namely, the restoration of the true ruler and the emergence of a unity consciousness represented by One Hunahpu”

If the situation wasn’t so serious, we could all have a ROFL reading the following link and seeing what low standards JMJ has for a “true ruler” and the “unity consciousness” he wants us to join–

That is: On Dec 21, 2012 at sunrise, the mannequins in shopping malls will start coming to life. Pass it on!

What does that have to do with the Popol Vuh? Well, the “Wooden Mannequins” were Seven Macaw’s own people, who lived in the previous World Age from roughly 8000-3000 BCE. To archeologists, the people of that time period are known as the Archaic Maya — and were not really made of wood.

Of course, a lot of mannequins nowadays are made of plastic. I’m not sure how that affects the symbolism.

I prefer to think of the prophecy as something strange and wonderful being reborn, within the human psyche. But, really, its meaning is what you make of it..